**Restricted view seats are still available for $20. Please call our Box Office team during office hours at (03) 9685 5111 to book tickets.**
The beloved Australian classic novel and groundbreaking film comes to the mainstage for the first time.
Josie Alibrandi is in her final year of high school. Whip-smart and aspirational, she is a third-generation Italian teenager and scholarship kid, with the shadow of a family curse and a penchant for rulebreaking. Juggling grades, boys, and the claustrophobia of an overbearing nonna and saintly mother, Josie’s life becomes tangled in the webs of class, identity, and family history as she finds her place in a changing world.
Iconic novel and cult movie, Looking for Alibrandi is the honest and empowered portrait of 1990s Mediterranean culture that spoke for the first time about systemic racism in Australia from a migrant perspective. It defined a generation and to this day resonates with those caught in the stranglehold of identity and othering in this country. Director Stephen Nicolazzo (Loaded, Merciless Gods) brings Melina Marchetta’s best-selling novel to the mainstage for the first time, where Vidya Rajan’s adaptation will join three generations of women in a passionate, heart wrenching, and unmissable rendering of the Australian classic.
Starring Chanella Macri (Australian Realness), Lucia Mastrantone, and Jennifer Vuletic (Because The Night) as the Alibrandi women with Ashley Lyons, Hannah Monson, and John Marc Desengano (The Lockdown Monologues).
"Bursts to radiant life on stage in this joyous sunbeam of a production"
"The story has always compelled me because it spoke so directly to the conflict I experienced, socially and internally. I was scared to embrace my identity for fear of not being able to access an Anglo-centric world. Josie was the first character I had ever read or seen on screen that understood what it was like. She made me proud to be a wog and I will thank Melina for creating her every single day."
Malthouse Theatre and Belvoir present Looking for Alibrandi. Malthouse is supported by COVID-19 Arts Sustainability Fund - an Australian Government initiative.
Campaign image: Kristian Gehradte
Production Images: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott
MUSICIANS / | Rosa Voto, Renato Vacirca |
CULTURAL & LANGUAGE CONSULTANT / | Lucia Mastrantone |
VOCAL COACH / | Matt Furlani |
DIALECT COACH / | Paulo Bongiovanni |
BESEN PLACEMENT (COMPOSITION & SOUND DESIGN) / | Aiv Puglielli |
BESEN PLACEMENT (SET & COSTUME DESIGN) / | Karine Larché |
TRANSLATION / | Moreno Giovannoni |
DESIGN INTERN / | Casey Harper-Wood |
DIRECTOR INTERNS / | Tansy Gorman, Steph Lee |
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Event & ticketing details
Accessibility
Dates & Times
PREVIEWS | 7.30pm Sat 9 Jul, 6.30pm Mon 11 Jul, 6.30pm Tue 12 Jul |
OPENING NIGHT | 7.30pm, Wed 13 Jul |
TIME TO TALK | 6.30pm, Tue 19 Jul |
AUSLAN INTERPRETED | 7.30pm, Fri 22 Jul |
AUDIO DESCRIBED | 6.30pm, Wed 27 Jul |
CANCELLED | 7.30pm Fri 8 Jul |
Location
Merlyn Theatre
The Malthouse, 113 Sturt St, Southbank 3006
Get directionsTrain
Any train to Flinders Street, then a 12-minute stroll through Melbourne’s sparkling Arts Precinct.Tram
The No. 1 South Melbourne tram goes right past our door. Get off at Stop 18. Any tram down St Kilda Road—jump off at Grant Street, Stop 17 and take a 3-minute walk.Event notes
WARNINGS
This production contains occasional coarse language, stage violence, references to suicide, smoking of herbal cigarettes, sexual references, staged intimacy, partial nudity, allusion to domestic violence, and haze. For more detailed information, see our full list of content warnings here.
DURATION
2 hours, 20 minutes (including a 20 minute interval)
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